mel now lives in a very small town in GA...the town is called ludowici, and it is not possible to get there by public transport...i took advantage of this situation to hire a car, and planned to drive to her house...two things made this a particularly adventurous decision...one, i didn't have a map, and two, mel's house is in such a newly developed area that it does not yet show up on GPS, or google maps...hmmm...i figured out how to get to her house, and took off from the airport in atlanta...the first part of the drive went really well...i got to the right highways, singing along to country music on the radio...at one point the directions i'd printed out said to exit onto a smaller, state highway...i never saw the exit...(later on, i figured out where the exit should've been, and i think it was marked with another number, since that particular road was actually 2 different roads that joined up for a while)...ooops...missing that exit meant i ended up driving all the way to savannah, which wasn't my intention...
this actually ended up being a good thing though, as i drove into savannah, and saw a sign directing me to tourist information...i figured they would have people who could answer my questions, and, more importantly, i hoped they would have georgia state maps...and they did...it turned out the little old lady i talked to knew exactly where ludowici was located, she'd even lived there...the map i picked up made it much easier to get to where i was going...easier, but not quite easy...i finally made it to mel's house, though it took me a couple hours longer than expected...(and without a phone, there was no way i could call or text mel to let her know where i was)...mel was in the same group in uni with the two saras i got to see in DC...mel and i sat around and talked until her husband came home from work...he'd been texting throughout the day, asking if i had arrived, he was wondering where i was as much as i was while i was driving...
a few years ago, mel got married to a guy named eric...they married quickly, but it's easy to see the relationship is a good one, and they're both happy...he's in the army, hence the reason they live where they do...they'd just moved from one base to another, so the house wasn't completely organized, and they didn't have their kids with them...(they didn't want to live in a hotel with the kids until the house was bought, moved into and set up, paperwork arranged for everything in the area, etc)...the kids were up in indiana, with mel's parents...her parents were going to drive down sometime in the next couple days with the kids, mel and eric were both really happy for the upcoming reunion...
dinner the first night was one of eric's favourite meals...chicken something i think? i'm terrible at remembering specific meals...it was nice to have a proper, homecooked meal...i helped with cleanup afterward, i try not to be a total mooch when i'm visiting someone:)...the next day mel and i decided to drive to savannah...since i'd already been there, the highways entering the city seemed familiar, but i didn't know anything else about the area...savannah is a typical "old south" city that somehow escaped being destroyed during the civil war...
you get to see the riverfront area, which is now covered by restaurants and touristy shops...it's a nice walk, and at the end of that area is a statue of the girl who is said to have waited there every day for the sailor boy she loved...(he never came back, but she was greeted by many people on the ships that sailed the area)...we also walked bull street, the other famous area of the city...lunch was at a cafe, mel chose the place...since she'd been in the area a few weeks already, she'd explored savannah a bit before i got there...i expect she'll know the city really really well by the time she and her husband move to his next posting...
many of the houses and other buildings on the street are now museums that give you a good idea what life was like back during the days of antebellum living...we didn't go in any of the museums, i know i'd have wanted to see more than one, and the entry fees aren't the cheapest, as well as adding up quickly...it's fun to soak up the atmosphere, and see the old styles of architecture...driving on bull street would drive me crazy, as every other intersection is actually a square, with a big memorial/statue/park in the middle...constantly stopping, turning, etc would be soooo annoying...we visited a nice fountain, and a cemetary...both of which are supposed to be known, neither of which do i remember the names...whoops...
the next day mel and i just hung out in the house...as much as i love traveling, i love doing a whole lot of nothing, just catching up with a good friend i haven't seen in a long while...
the next day, i left...it was easier to get back to atlanta this time:)
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